incentivosvsintensivosWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: incentivos is a noun, intensivos is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“incentivos” is a noun and “intensivos” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,003
“incentivos” frequency rank
#24,911
“intensivos” frequency rank
34914
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature incentivos intensivos
Definition Forma del plural de incentivo. Forma del plural de intensivo.

Where the eye mixes incentivos and intensivos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. incentivos and intensivos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
incentivos
10 ch
intensivos

Visual trap between incentivos and intensivos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: incentivos is [ĩnsẽn̪ˈt̪iβ̞os] while intensivos is [ĩn̪t̪ẽnˈsiβ̞os]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34914, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

incentivos is recorded at frequency rank #10,003, classified as anoun, pronounced [ĩnsẽn̪ˈt̪iβ̞os]. intensivos is at rank #24,911, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ĩn̪t̪ẽnˈsiβ̞os].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 34914, this pair ranks #188,877 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of incentivos vs intensivos

Shared letters: einostv. Private to "incentivos": c. Private to "intensivos": -.

"incentivos" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC  ·  "intensivos" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • incentivos ← icnentivos · inccentivos · incenitvos · incenntivos · incentibos · incentiovs · incentivoss · incentivso
  • intensivos ← inetnsivos · inntensivos · intencivos · intenisvos · intennsivos · intensibos · intensiovs · intensivoss

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "incentivos" and "intensivos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "incentivos" is a noun and "intensivos" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "incentivos" or "intensivos" show up more?
"incentivos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,003 in our Spanish list, against #24,911 for "intensivos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "incentivos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intensivos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,877 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "incentivos" and "intensivos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inofensivos vs intensivos". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #188,877 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list